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Are chickpeas the new kale? The humble little legume is showing up everywhere these days — fried and spiced as a bar snack, whirled into garlicky hummus, tossed in salads, simmered in fragrant stews and tagines. Surely chickpea smoothies can’t be far off.

And it’s not just chickpeas. The nutty little nuggets are joined by lentils, split peas, dried beans and the whole nutritious world of pulses. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has named 2016 the International Year of Pulses, so you can expect to be eating loads of lentils in the coming months.

It couldn’t come a moment too soon. Have you seen the price of meat and fish lately? Not to mention dairy and veg? Groceries will only get more expensive in 2016, thanks to a double whammy of the low Canadian dollar and devastating drought in so many food-producing regions.

Luckily, though, pulses continue to offer great nutritional value for the dollar. Besides, says chef Jonathan Chovancek, “It’s not only for nutritional value, they’re also delicious.”

Chovancek has been cooking plenty of pulses lately. Since 2010, when he became the chef on the CBC TV documentary series Village on a Diet, he has been passionate about cooking and eating healthier. Then, as executive chef at Café Medina, he embraced the cuisines of North Africa and the Middle East, where pulses play a crucial role.

Now, as a culinary instructor at Cook Culture’s new North Vancouver location, he’s finding that his students are craving them, too.

“It’s not that they’re demanding legumes, but when I show them how to cook legumes, they are so into it,” says Chovancek, who will be teaching a class on legumes on Feb. 16. “I think people want to eat healthy, and they want to cook better for their families, and they just don’t have the tools.”

Turns out, the “tools” they are looking for are simply dried beans.

Although the terms “pulse” and “legume” are often used interchangeably, pulses are technically the dried edible seeds of plants in the legume family. According to Pulse Canada, the family of legumes comprises more than 13,000 species, including alfalfa, clover, soy and peanuts. Pulses specifically include lentils, chickpeas and dried peas and beans, such as kidney beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, split peas and sprouted mung beans (better known as bean sprouts).

Pulses are high in protein, fibre, B vitamins, iron and amino acids, but low in fat — all reasons why Canada’s Food Guide recommends eating more of them and why medical experts consider them a vital ingredient in fighting obesity, diabetes, coronary disease and cancer.

Legumes are also important nitrogen-fixing crops that can increase soil fertility. So they’re not just good for you, they’re good for the environment.

And they’re local, too.

According to Pulse Canada, Canada is one of the world’s biggest producers of pulses, accounting for 35 per cent of the global pulse trade and shipping to 150 global markets. In 2010 alone, Canada exported a record 4.3 million tonnes of pulses worth more than $2.1 billion; indeed, we have become the world’s largest exporter of peas and lentils.

That might change, though, if the folks at GRAIN have their way. Founded by Shira McDermott and Janna Bishop, GRAIN is a Vancouver-based company that connects Canadian farmers with consumers, in this case, by sourcing, packaging and selling high quality dry goods such as lentils, chickpeas, wheat berries and quinoa.

Who knows? Maybe one day lentils from Laird, Sask., will be as famous as the ones from Le Puy, France.

Of course, that will only happen if we make more of an effort to serve them. And that means learning how to cook them.

Pulses generally come in two formats: dried or canned.

Canned beans and chickpeas are already cooked; all you need to do is add them to whatever dish you’re serving. (Be sure to rinse them well first, though — canned beans generally contain high amounts of sodium and the starches that lead to gassiness.)

Dried beans take more work, but they are cheaper and, because you control what you add to them and how you cook them, they are arguably more nutritious and delicious.

“There are very few canned products that I think taste as good and dynamic as a dried product,” Chovancek says.

The key is to start by soaking the beans or chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water. Chovancek also suggests adding a touch of lemon juice to the soaking liquid — it neutralizes a substance called phytic acid, which prevents the body from absorbing the plant’s proteins and minerals. (Alternatively, you can cook them with acidic ingredients such as tomatoes.)

Once the beans have been soaked, cook them slowly — “I like to advise people to simmer them like you’re poaching an egg,” Chovancek says — in plenty of water.

He recommends using four times the volume of water as the amount of beans, starting with fresh, cold water, and stirring them frequently as they cook so they maintain an even heat. Beans will take one to two hours to cook; lentils as little as 30 minutes. Add a bit of salt halfway through the cooking time for the best texture.

Alternatively, Chovancek says, use a pressure cooker and it will cook your beans in half the liquid and a quarter of the time. “And you get an incredibly hydrated and plump legume.”

You will want to cook pulses fully before adding them to most dishes. You can even cook a big batch of beans ahead of time and keep them in the freezer. Then you can let your culinary creativity shine. Pulses are major ingredients in everything from soups to salads to stews to spreads. Their neutral flavours and dense texture makes them an ideal canvas for a wide range of spice palettes, especially Mediterranean, North African, South Asian and Middle Eastern.

These cuisines are all the rage right now, Chovancek says, because so many consumers have discovered them on their travels. It helps that celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali and Yotam Ottolenghi are making once exotic ingredients like za’atar and sumac as familiar as, say, basil and mint.

“Now it’s easier for us to travel around the world virtually,” Chovancek adds. “I think it’s just the way food trends have gone — people are more willing to discover new spice palates and unique ingredients.”

Add pulses to that list, because they’re good for you, good for your budget and good for the planet.

“And at the end of the day,” Chovancek says, “they’re just delicious.”

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Make your culinary heart beat faster with chickpeas, lentils, and other legumes

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